Welcome to The Amazing Race Canada goes to Normandy! Or, as I like to call it, Lost in Fraaance!

Ryan has his own title: “If Ryan and Rob had a French travel show, it would be called ‘Getting Lost and Hating Yourself.’ ” Rob thinks it should be called “Taking the Long Way in France with Ryan and Rob.” (I think Ryan’s is snappier, don’t you?”

Rob and Ryan stop for directions . . . again.

For all the reality-TV silliness and staples on display, though, there’s real heart in this week’s episode as the teams travel to Juno Beach, one of the allied landing sites on D-Day. Canadian veteran Jim Parks is the greeter at the Pit Stop, which is located about 150 yards from where he came ashore as a 19-year-old soldier during the invasion on June 4, 1944.

When Meaghan and Natalie, winners of the leg, thank him for what he did for our country, the 89-year-old Parks says, “Makes you proud to be a Canadian, right?” And cue tissues. (As if you weren’t crying already.)

Give the makers of The Amazing Race Canada their due: these guys know what they’re doing in an episode that’s dedicated to “the brave men and women who served in the Canadian Armed Forces during D-Day, World War II and throughout history,” as Jon Montgomery says. It’s a solid episode from the perspective of the Race, with the team standings going through a shake up, but with the added emotional resonance of what happened in the area 70 years ago. (And I’m not just saying that because they brought me to France so I could follow the show on its second trip overseas.)

The teams start the leg in Winnipeg, making the 7,000-kilometres-plus journey to Paris via Toronto. They catch cabs at the airport and travel to the outskirts of Paris to pick up their cars. This is when things get interesting. The French drive on the right side of the road, but that’s pretty much where the similarity ends. There are roundabouts everywhere and the driving is aggressive, to put it kindly.

Meaghan can’t figure out what she’s doing wrong at the Calvados challenge.

Some teams handle the transition with ease (Natalie and Meaghan, Michel and Pierre, Mickey and Pete reach the first location 1,2,3), while the rest of the field struggle to find their way at multiple spots along the way. Once they reach the Boulard Calvados Distillery, one member of each team has to dilute aged apple brandy to the required 40 percent alcohol content in a Road Block.

And while it sounds fun – booze! – there is more than a little math involved. Plus, the competitors can only glean info from watching a demonstration, no talking allowed. Meaghan loses the Golden Girls’ pole position when she takes six tries to get the formula right (she was using the wrong instruments in certain steps), while Pierre nails it on his first try to take the lead.

Jinder also whizzes through the task, putting that degree in molecular biology to use and claiming second place. And speaking of degrees, jaws hit the floor when it comes out that Mickey, our bubble-headed beach blond, has a degree in accounting. Pete tells the camera that his partner just plays dumb, and he doesn’t know why. Us either! Also, Pete shares, “I hate numbers. They’re not my friends.” But Mickey is, right brah?

Michel, left, and Pierre decide they are not the mane men.

“We are leaving behind everyone except Ryan and Rob who are, I think, their way to Spain,” Pierre says to the camera after they hightail it out of there. (Close. At one point, the soundman in Ryan and Rob’s car tells the rest of the crew that he thinks he can see Mount Fuji, so . . .) But you can only hide booze from a pair of bartenders for so long and the two West End Boys finally pull into Calvados. Rob is watching the demo as Jinder and Sukhi head out the door with their clue. “Ferme la bouche!” Ryan yells at the siblings as they make their noisy exit.

Lucky for the bartenders that Pete also sucks at figuring out which tools to use, just like Meaghan did. Ryan has a eureka moment when he says, “Why is that all weird?” and 3, 2, 1: “The tools are different sizes. Oh, I get it, I get it, I get it, I get it.” And just like that, it’s one and done. Pete, meanwhile, is all “I have no idea what I am doing wrong” on his eighth attempt. Then Ryan, either out of the kindness of his heart or blindly not realizing he is giving his closest competitor vital info, points out the gauges are different sizes. Oh, and this is how it all works!

Meaghan and Natalie tackle the challenge at Bayeux.

When the teams reach the Detour, they must choose between Tell It and Show It. The former involves travelling to the nearby town of Bayeux and placing reproductions of the famous Bayeux Tapestry in the correct order to accompanying clues. The latter requires teams to travel to a nearby Percheron farm and French braiding a horse’s mane with ribbon.

The brothers choose Show It, given that they grew up on a farm and had a horse, but once they’re doing the task, they realize it’s not their thing. So, they switch it up and head to the tapestry instead. Sukhi and Jinder also choose Show It, as do Alain and Audrey, Mickey and Pete and Ryan and Rob (once they can find the place, of course). Natalie and Meaghan go with Tell It from the start, and it pays off, big time. They leapfrog from third to first. They’re out of Bayeux before the brothers arrive, so the brothers think they’ve got the lead, not the Golden Girls.

Pete holds their horse steady while Mickey works his magic.

Although Sukhi and Jinder arrive at the task after Alain and Audrey, Sukhi’s superior braiding skills push them to third place. Audrey and Alain aren’t too far behind, but run into major problems trying to locate the beach sailing task in Asnelles.

And will wonders never cease? Not only is Mickey an accountant (I’m still processing that. You?), he took cosmetology in high school and knows his way around a braid. Hands up viewers who would watch Mickey braid his own hair, or, a la Chris Pratt, the locks of someone else during an on-camera interview?

Over in Asnelles, Nat and Meaghan are having a blast navigating their wheeled sailboats around the course laid out on the sand. They really get moving, so much so that one of them tips their vessel. How windy is it? Well, when a group of local grade-school kids went by just before the Golden Girls hit the beach, about half of them were wearing ski goggles to protect their eyes during a clamming expedition.

JInder rides the wind in the beach sailing challenge.

Michel and Pierre also make short work of the task, as do Sukhi and Jinder, and Mickey and Pete. Ou et Alain and Audrey, you ask? Well, they’re lost. And Rob and Ryan are too, once again, as soon as they finish braiding that horse’s mane.

The teams visit Beny-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery, walking amongst the 2,049 headstones and are moved at what they see. “People look at Olympic athletes and think they’re heroes, but what we do does not even come close to what Canadian soldiers have done for us and continue to do for us,” Meaghan says. Michel and Pierre are also touched at vising the gravesite, as is Sukhi and Jinder. Mickey and Pete wonder at the ages of the dead, many of them younger than their own 24 years. “They paid the ultimate sacrifice so we could live the lives we are living right now,” Mickey marvels.

Pierre, left, and Michel salute a soldier at the Juno Beach Centre.

The teams bring a poppy from the cemetery to a young soldier at the Juno Beach Centre in the small town of Courseulles-sur-Mer. He accepts it and directs them down to the beach to the Pit Stop where they are greeted by Jon and Jim Parks.

There are tears all around as Jon welcomes the Golden Natalie and Meaghan reclaim the first-place finish and win a trip for two to Europe and $3,000. Michel and Pierre are second, but are content with it. “We would have liked to win today, but when you walk on these beaches,” Pierre shrugs, “it’s something else. A lot of people sacrificed their lives.”

Ryan, left, and Rob learn that it’s a non-elimination leg, so they’re safe for another week.

They’re followed by Mickey and Pete and Sukhi and Jinder. Alain and Audrey manage to make it to the mat before the light is gone, but the sun’s set when Rob and Ryan finally make it to the finish line. Luckily for them, it’s a non-elimination leg, so they are still in the running. As the Race heads to Paris, though, things take a turn on the dark side in the City of Light. And cue dramatic music!